Apr 05

Minor-league ballplayers should strike

If you somehow thought MLB was a pretty enlightened employer, disabuse yourself of that notion. In an interview Commissioner Rob Manfred dances all around the idea that the provision of the spending bill Congress just passed which exempted MLB from fair labor law is no big thing, really. Minor leaguers are just seasonal employees like migrant workers and teachers, after all.

“In terms of the mechanics of it, honestly, for us, the wage issue is money. And we deal with money issues all the time. The part of it that was of most concern to clubs was: How do you decide what’s overtime for a minor league baseball player? Player decides he wants to stay and take extra batting. Is that overtime? He decided. I didn’t ask him to do that! Player goes to the gym to work out: Is that a working hour, is it not a working hour? It’s just not realistic. They’re on the road all the time, there’s not time clocks available. And that’s why those laws — nobody ever thought those laws applied to players.

Can you say “specious argument,” class?

Here’s another one:

“You know, look: I think that the way that we think about it—okay—is that we provide playing opportunities for minor-league players. It’s a six-month job. Just like entertainers often work six months at a pop. The other six months are the responsibility of the employee! They’re just not our responsibility.

What the hey, they get paid huge sums for the six months they play, right? No.

The act will not give raises to players at any of these levels (note: the federally-recognized poverty line is $12,140 per year for single-individual households).

AAA: $2,150/month in their first year, $2,400/month in second year, $2,700/month in third, for a 5.5-month season.
(Total: ~$11,825-$14,850 per year.)

AA: $1,700/month, goes up by $100/month in additional years.
(Total: ~$9,350+ per year)

High-A, Low-A: $1,100-1,500/month, goes up by $50 per year in additional years.
(Total: ~$6,050-8,400 per year)

Dominican Summer League: $300 per month, $900 per year for the three-month season. (These players are exempt from the raise, since their labor takes place in another country, and is not subject to U.S. minimum-wage laws.)

Enlightened, MLB is not. What it is is cheap with its employees while spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress, including $1.32M in 2017 alone, to get this sweetheart provision inserted into this spending bill.

Click that first link and read the whole interview. Levi Weaver did a good job asking questions and a better job annotating the answers.

Jul 01

Game 82, 2016

Rockies at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ROOT Sports

The Rockies start Jorge De La Rosa (5-4, 6.47 ERA) against the Dodgers’ newly-acquired Bud Norris (3-7, 4.22 ERA). After a hiatus De La Rosa moved back into the rotation on June 14 and has won all three starts since while posting a 2.11 ERA, but he’s not made it past the sixth inning in any one of them. Norris had a bad two months to start the year with the Braves but has gone 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in six appearances in June.

Pitchers’ history:

De La Rosa has faced the Dodgers 25 times in his career, opposing only the Padres, Giants and D-backs more. He has historically struggled against Los Angeles, holding a 5.22 ERA over 120 2/3 innings. However, he has a 3.90 ERA at Dodger Stadium and has a 2.87 ERA in his last five starts against the Dodgers, spanning back to August 2014.

[snip]

[Norris] is 2-1 with a 6.23 ERA in 10 games (five starts) against the Rockies in his career, but 13 of the 21 earned runs came at Coors Field.

Other news of note:

  • The Associated Press will begin using an automated writing service to cover more than 10,000 minor league baseball games annually, the news cooperative announced Thursday.”
  • Two nitwit Congresspeople (one of whom has now retracted her sponsorship) wrote legislation attempting to exclude Minor League Baseball from the Fair Labor Standards Act because the millionaires and billionaires who own MLB and pay the minor leaguers’ salaries don’t want those wages to be governed by labor law. Grant Bisbee rips the argument to shreds.

Also, Kershaw and Pederson have been placed on the 15-day disabled list and Will Venable has been brought up.

All Star Game voting ends at midnight ET. Vote often (well, up to 35 times)!

Lineup when available.

Aug 24

Game 132, 2014

132 was my company number in boot camp way back in 1972 at the now-closed Recruit Training Center in San Diego.

Mets at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Bartolo Colon will start for the Mets, but the big news is that according to Fox Sports he’s been placed on revocable waivers (see here for a discussion of what that means), so tomorrow’s start might be his last wearing the Orange and Blue. He’s 11-10 with a 3.85 ERA on the season.

The Dodgers send Kevin Correia out to make his third start as a Dodger. He’s 2-0 with a 4.09 ERA in the NL after coming over from the Twins and 7-13 with a 4.87 ERA overall.

In news from the farm, multiple news sources are reporting that the Dodgers will move their AAA affiliation from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City next season. A Dodger-affiliated buyers group is finalizing a deal with the current owner of the OKC Redhawks, which announced it was selling its five minor league properties earlier this year.

Oklahoma City’s elevation is 1,201 feet, while Albuquerque’s is 5,312 feet. The reasoning seems to be that trying to judge players’ skills when they play their home games at the same elevation as Denver is difficult and can lead to disappointment.

In other AAA news,

With a stolen base Saturday night, Dodgers No. 3 prospect Joc Pederson did what no other player has done in the Pacific Coast League since 1934.

Already leading the league with 32 home runs, Pederson swiped his 30th base of the season to become the first 30-homer, 30-steal player in the PCL since Angels Minor Leaguer Frank Demaree did it 80 years ago.

Lineup when available.

May 21

Game 47, 2014

Dodgers at Mets, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Hyun-Jin Ryu comes off the DL to start this game. It will be his first start since April 27, when his left shoulder showed inflammation. He’s 3-2 with a 3.00 ERA, but that record isn’t the important thing about this start; rather, it’s how well his shoulder reacts to pitching. He threw a 75-pitch simulated game last Friday.

His opponent will be Jacob deGrom, a right-hander who is 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA. This will be his second major league appearance. He did pretty well in his first one last week, when he held the Yankees to one run on four hits in seven innings. He also struck out six and walked two.

In minor league news, the most complete story of what happened between Miguel Olivo and Alexander Guerrero in the Isotopes’ dugout last night seems to be from Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times:

Olivo became steamed after his team allowed a stolen base in the seventh inning, according to Boras. Olivo blamed Guerrero for failing to tag the baserunner in time, the agent said. A video posted on the Albuquerque Isotopes’ website showed Olivo attempting to charge Guerrero during a pitching change later in the inning. The players exchanged words as they walked off the field at the end of the inning.

“Guerrero was in the far end of the dugout,” Boras said. “He went to the front to get his bat and helmet to hit. As he walked across, Olivo decked him.”

Guerrero and Olivo had to be separated by teammates, according to Boras. When players pulled off Olivo, he had a piece of Guerrero’s ear in his mouth, Boras said.

Seeing superagent Scott Boras’s name in a news article as a witness rather than as a protagonist seems odd, but there you go.

Lineup when available.

Update: Juan Uribe goes on the fifteen-day DL and the Dodgers call up Erisbel Arruebarrena to replace him.

Apr 24

Game 23, 2014

As if there weren’t some interesting prospects there, this may be sufficient reason for a road trip to Albuquerque to see the Isotopes.


Assembly instructions here.

Phillies v. Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

It’s the Phillies’ Kyle Kendrick, who is 0-1 with a 3.50 ERA, facing Dodgers right-hander Daren Haren, who is 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA.

The Dodgers defense has been awful, as we’ve all seen. They’ve committed 22 errors in their first 22 games, which won’t cut it.

“I’m assuming, if we’re going to get to where we want to go, it’s not going to be with 10-8 and 7-6 games, it’ll be 4-2 and 3-1 where a mistake can cost a run when they don’t come easily,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “You don’t get as much attention for playing solid defense. They don’t say, ‘Bills [Chad Billingsley] really backed up the bases well today.’ But we have to change what we’ve been doing. We need a much better concentrated effort. There are going to be certain physical limitations for certain players, but we can’t afford mental mistakes. We need to be in the right position and communicate. These guys know what to do. We’ve got to make sure we put enough focus on it. I’ve expressed it to them once and will continue to.”

Lineup when available.